{"id":152815,"date":"2019-03-13T10:51:28","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T14:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/?p=152815"},"modified":"2021-10-13T16:54:12","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T20:54:12","slug":"mark-edwards-iv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/mark-edwards-iv\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Mark Edwards IV: Leaving a Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editor\u2019s Note: Mark Edwards was the head men\u2019s coach at Washington University in St. Louis from 1981-2018, amassing 685 career wins, 34-straight winning seasons from 1984-2018, 20 NCAA Tournament appearances, three Final Fours (2007-09) and two national championships (2008, 2009). This is the fourth and final installment of our series on him. We encourage you to take the time to also read <\/strong>Part 1<\/strong><\/a>, <\/em>Part 2<\/a><\/em><\/strong> and Part 3<\/a><\/strong>, all chronically over his coaching career.<\/em>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Edwards stayed at WashU for 37 years. If that sounds like a long time, it\u2019s because it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s common for coaches to move up the ladder, bouncing around programs after a handful of years with the hope of ending in their dream position. But what if everything you wanted was already in front of you? What if you had already achieved the dream?
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the questions people often ask me is, why were you there for so long? My answer is, why not?\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI had a perfect platform for my philosophy. I had a perfect support system. We had two chancellors the whole time I was there, and one athletic director who hired me was with me for 34 of those years. I had no reason to leave.\u201d
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He said opportunities are a two-way street, and he never pursued any other position while at WashU. If asked if he was interested in elsewhere, he would say no. He\u2019s confident he could have left if he wanted, but he was happy where he was, even when times were tough.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy ambition was to prove that we could win national championships at Washington University. They provided me that opportunity,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cDid I think we were going to win? I had to, because if I didn\u2019t, then I would be a phony. I would be standing in the locker room in 1982, I told those guys that our goal was to win a national championship. And perhaps at first it was like, \u2018Oh, yeah right,\u2019 but by the time they graduated, and every kid graduated, they really believed they had that opportunity. I think this, to me, was so important that my program was defined this way. So yeah, we were discouraged. I never once thought about leaving for that reason, and I think I\u2019m very comfortable and confident that I\u2019ve made the right decisions, did the right things and lived a life that was consistent with what I was trying to get our players to do.\u201d
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In 1977, Edwards attended a clinic with Al McGuire as a speaker. During his speech, he made a comment that you can\u2019t win with smart kids. That stuck with Edwards, and it influenced his decision to take the WashU job in 1981. He wanted to prove McGuire and anyone who nodded their head at that speech wrong.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat served as a little baseline for me to start thinking about because I like smart kids,\u201d Edwards explained. \u201cI like kids who are inquisitive. I always enjoyed academics. I always enjoyed athletics. I always believed you could combine the two.\u201d
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It was tough sledding to start, though. It took 27 years to build WashU from scratch into a national champion. That means nearly three decades of seasons ended unsatisfactorily and 26 teams that didn\u2019t reach the mountain top. Between winning the second national championship and retiring, nine more teams needed consoling at the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disappointment can be difficult for coaches and players to bear.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen it happens, the emotions of it is like it\u2019s do or die. It is grieving,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cYou learn how to handle it. Can you apply that to your real life? It\u2019s not going to lessen the impact of it, but it will at least strengthen your resolve to get through.\u201d
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Through his career, Edwards realized what sports are and how the emotions they bring, positive and negative, can be used as a guide for his own life and the lives of his players.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI try to keep it in perspective by recognizing this fact: sports are manufactured crisis,\u201d he explained. \u201cYou set playing rules, and you set a goal of what you\u2019re trying to accomplish. You create an emotional situation that makes a crisis, and you either do it or you don\u2019t.
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen, you walk away, and nobody died. There are no kingdoms lost. There\u2019s no financial ruin. You lost a game. But you suffered the same emotional crisis as people in life that they\u2019re going to face. When you hear coaches say that we are really just giving life lessons, what they\u2019re really saying is we are preparing ourselves emotionally to deal with crises we\u2019re going to face in life by manufacturing crises through sport.\u201d
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Although winning a championship can be the goal, Edwards said people need to understand there\u2019s success in the middle ground. Your goals can be lofty, but you need to aim at something attainable first and work your way up.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t necessarily have to get the championship to make a championship run,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes I think we throw out roles. We say, \u2018You can be anything you want to be and do anything that you want to do.\u2019 But there has to be some other blurred line there, and that line is, if you make good decisions and pick wisely what you\u2019re going for.
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor instance, I remember once I was at a camp. I was talking about setting goals and pursuing things, and this little kid came up to me after the camp and said, \u2018I\u2019ve set my goal.\u2019 I said, \u2018Oh really, what is your goal?\u2019 And he says, \u2018my goal is to be a 7-footer.\u2019 And I started chuckling, but you know, in a way, you have to define how goals are set in order to make them achievable.
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd so, this is part of life\u2019s lesson, and when I walked into that room with the team in 1982, and I asked them if there\u2019s a championship in this room, they didn\u2019t know what a championship was. It was my job to define that over the years. Eventually, this became an expected norm: this is what we\u2019re going for. Whether we made it or not, it was the goal of the program. Winning championships gave it legitimacy, but there\u2019s a lot of kids who didn\u2019t win it, and there\u2019s a lot of programs that never had that opportunity. But that doesn\u2019t mean it can\u2019t be their goal.\u201d
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"Mark<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In his 37 years as head coach at WashU, nine seasons as an assistant at Washington State and the time he spent as a grad assistant, Edwards said it taught him how to recognize what really matters and what doesn\u2019t. Those same principles also made him a better coach.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it helps you become a good basketball coach by learning how to define what is truly important in my life. What is truly important and what\u2019s something that\u2019s just desirable,\u201d he explained. \u201cI think that as a basketball coach, we get so wrapped up in the goal that we forget about the people who we are trying to reach that goal with if we\u2019re not careful. The one thing I\u2019ve learned is that the capacity to listen, and that you need to apply that to everything that you do and the people who are around you to try to understand what it is they need. This is probably more along the line of team formation, but in life it\u2019s the same way. It\u2019s a life formation. With your own kids, your grandkids, listening to them as to what it is they\u2019re struggling with and what they\u2019re trying to accomplish and being a support for it. That\u2019s what you do with a basketball team, too.\u201d
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Beyond that, ensuring you have positive people around you is a valuable lesson Edwards learned from his years in coaching.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s taught me to surround yourself with people who believe in you and believe in each other,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI think my having done this over these years here at Washington University and surrounding myself with good people, assistant coaches, players, kids coming into the program are looking for something beyond just scoring points, have made this such a tremendous experience, and I think that\u2019s true in anything. You\u2019re always going to have people who are going to work to tear you down. Surround yourself with people who are going to work to build you up.\u201d
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The lessons and people Edwards found at WashU helped keep him there for nearly four decades, but there was more that kept him in the coaching profession for so long. Part of it was the thrill of winning, but a large part was the challenge every year and day brought.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are some people who are perfectly content with doing nothing in life,\u201d he said. \u201cThey go to work every day, they come home every night, they have a family they enjoy, and they have no desire to move beyond that little bubble. That\u2019s their choice, and I think that challenges that you set, try to meet and conquer, they define the person that you are. It doesn\u2019t necessarily define your success in life. Some people want challenges. Look at politicians. Why would you want to be president of the United States? Some people want challenges, and this is how they function. That\u2019s what competition is all about. And some people don\u2019t. That\u2019s the nature of them.
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI found my level of challenge. I found my outlet in order to fulfill that, and it was at Washington University coaching Division III basketball. I have no regrets. Absolutely been thrilled with the way everything worked out.\u201d
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In retirement, Edwards still lives in St. Louis and will attend WashU games, watching from the bleachers as a fan rather than a coach. Even in the midst of March Madness, he is enjoying the action away from the sideline.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverybody asks me, \u2018What\u2019s it like sitting up there and watching?\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI\u2019m enjoying it. I think the one big thing that I have found since retiring, and now particularly since basketball has started this year, is I don\u2019t have the tension that I had before. It\u2019s not pressure, that\u2019s not it. It\u2019s just tension. The tension of wanting to be successful. The tension of wanting them to do and be good and to win and get a championship. You don\u2019t realize how much focus you put on that until you retire, and I just don\u2019t feel that tension.\u201d
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As Edwards reflects on his career, with all the wins, the championships, the anguish of the defeats, the 283 players he coached in his years at WashU and the countless other meaningful relationships he made along the way, there\u2019s one fact that he\u2019s most proud of. It\u2019s not the national championships, the Final Fours, the 34-straight winning seasons or the All-Americans he helped produce. He thinks back to 1977 and what Al McGuire said at that clinic, and it confirms what he set out to prove all along.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m most proud of the fact that we could win with smart kids,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cThat was the motivator from the beginning. We didn\u2019t have to compromise our values in order to provide championships.\u201d
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Photography provided by the WashU Bears Athletic Department.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"37 years is an incredibly long time for one coach to stay with a program, but things were a perfect fit for Mark Edwards and WashU. Here’s the final installment of our look into his legacy.\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":151734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false},"categories":[135,131,5731],"tags":[213,212,211,210],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Tale of Mark Edwards IV: Leaving a Legacy - Nothing But Nylon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/mark-edwards-iv\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Tale of Mark Edwards IV: Leaving a Legacy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"37 years is an incredibly long time for one coach to stay with a program, but things were a perfect fit for Mark Edwards and WashU. Here's the final installment of our look into his legacy.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/mark-edwards-iv\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nothing But Nylon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/nothingbutnylon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-13T14:51:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-13T20:54:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/fivestarmedia\/images\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1634158633\/basketball\/Edwards21\/Edwards21.jpg?_i=AA\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1140\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"757\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Meyer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@JustinButNylon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@nothingbutnylon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Meyer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/mark-edwards-iv\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/mark-edwards-iv\/\",\"name\":\"A Tale of Mark Edwards IV: Leaving a Legacy - Nothing But Nylon\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-13T14:51:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-13T20:54:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/#\/schema\/person\/30466fbe8c790d2c4c03e8843ed496d3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/mark-edwards-iv\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/mark-edwards-iv\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/mark-edwards-iv\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Tale of Mark Edwards IV: Leaving a Legacy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/\",\"name\":\"Nothing But Nylon\",\"description\":\"Respect The Net\u00ae\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/#\/schema\/person\/30466fbe8c790d2c4c03e8843ed496d3\",\"name\":\"Justin Meyer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/618c31dacaa94414a97cd37301a6e222?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/618c31dacaa94414a97cd37301a6e222?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Justin Meyer\"},\"description\":\"I was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, and have loved basketball for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, I have always been too short and Jewish to play at a high level, so I instead settled for watching and reporting from the sideline. I graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Maryland in 2017, co-founding The Left Bench and spending time at The Columbus Dispatch, USA Today and San Antonio Express-News.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JustinButNylon\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/author\/justin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Tale of Mark Edwards IV: Leaving a Legacy - Nothing But Nylon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/mark-edwards-iv\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Tale of Mark Edwards IV: Leaving a Legacy","og_description":"37 years is an incredibly long time for one coach to stay with a program, but things were a perfect fit for Mark Edwards and WashU. Here's the final installment of our look into his legacy.","og_url":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/mark-edwards-iv\/","og_site_name":"Nothing But Nylon","article_publisher":"https:\/\/facebook.com\/nothingbutnylon","article_published_time":"2019-03-13T14:51:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-10-13T20:54:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1140,"height":757,"url":"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/fivestarmedia\/images\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1634158633\/basketball\/Edwards21\/Edwards21.jpg?_i=AA","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Justin Meyer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@JustinButNylon","twitter_site":"@nothingbutnylon","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Justin Meyer","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/mark-edwards-iv\/","url":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/mark-edwards-iv\/","name":"A Tale of Mark Edwards IV: Leaving a Legacy - Nothing But Nylon","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-03-13T14:51:28+00:00","dateModified":"2021-10-13T20:54:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/#\/schema\/person\/30466fbe8c790d2c4c03e8843ed496d3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/mark-edwards-iv\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/mark-edwards-iv\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/mark-edwards-iv\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Tale of Mark Edwards IV: Leaving a Legacy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/","name":"Nothing But Nylon","description":"Respect The Net\u00ae","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/#\/schema\/person\/30466fbe8c790d2c4c03e8843ed496d3","name":"Justin Meyer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/618c31dacaa94414a97cd37301a6e222?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/618c31dacaa94414a97cd37301a6e222?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Justin Meyer"},"description":"I was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, and have loved basketball for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, I have always been too short and Jewish to play at a high level, so I instead settled for watching and reporting from the sideline. I graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Maryland in 2017, co-founding The Left Bench and spending time at The Columbus Dispatch, USA Today and San Antonio Express-News.","sameAs":["http:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com","https:\/\/twitter.com\/JustinButNylon"],"url":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/author\/justin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152815"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232944,"href":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152815\/revisions\/232944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nothingbutnylon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}